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The Greater Baltimore area is among the best places for baby boomers to settle down, according to a study that recently appeared on Forbes.

Conducted by the finance website NerdWallet, the study took into account affordability, available health care, social activities and accessibility. Its goal was to find locations across the U.S. that provide people in their 50s and 60s with opportunities for an active, social lifestyle, as well as low costs that will ease the transition into retirement.

Baltimore ranked No. 4 on the list due to the proximity of Johns Hopkins Medical Center and activities like life-enrichment classes and entertainment.

Pittsburgh was awarded best city for baby boomers, due to its accessibility, large population of baby boomers and availability of a wide range of activities from architecture classes to events. Third on the list was Cleveland.

"Bloomberg, 70 years old, graduated from Johns Hopkins in 1964 with a degree in engineering," the Journal writes. "He is the single-largest donor in the university’s history, giving more than $800 million since 1965 and contributing $120 million to the construction of the hospital."

Bloomberg Philanthropies funded 500 works of art, the paper writes. You can read the rest of the story here.

People in Vermont are the most healthful in the nation while those in Mississippi rank at the bottom. That's according to America's Health Ranking, a report that assesses residents' smoking, obesity, homicide and infant mortality rates, among other factors.

Maryland ranked No. 22 on the list. It scored favorably for a reduction in its smoking rate and a decrease in its violent crime rate. But it has a high infant mortality rate and levels of air pollution, according to the report.

What happens when you're both father and doctor? NPR tells the tale of a JHU psychologist whose son was diagnosed with autism.

Here's an excerpt:

"When a parent receives a diagnosis that his or her child has a condition with no known cure or treatment, it may be hard to know where to turn — even if the parent is a professional with the expertise to take matters into his own hands.

Dr. Barry Gordon, a neurologist and an experimental psychologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, faced the challenge of both treating and studying his son's condition. And in doing so, he pushed the limits of scientific research — and parental devotion."

Food tastes better if you work harder for it. That's according to a study conducted by Johns Hopkins University researchers, highlighted in an article in the Hartford Courant.

"That's the finding of a team of researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
Their experiment focused on two groups of mice. One group had to push a
lever once to get a morsel of food. The other had to push the lever 15
times before getting their reward – a morsel of the same kind of food.The mice that worked harder ate more of the food and seemed to enjoy it more (based on their 'licking behavior')."

Maryland Technology Development Corporation's new head, Robert A. Rosenbaum, took a little time out to talk with The Washington Post about his plans for the agency.

Here's an excerpt:

"Rosenbaum, a former managing director of Baltimore-based Nobska Ventures, also is pushing to close a gap in how the money is handed out. Too often, early-stage companies are left gasping for funds as they mature. If funding permits, he wants Tedco to fill that gap by following up on its seed investments with a second infusion of cash to help promising companies grow."

Johns Hopkins University, Greater Baltimore's largest employer, spends more than any other university on medical, science and engineering research. Johns Hopkins spent $1.85 billion on this research in fiscal 2009, according to the National Science Foundation, which tracked 711 institutions.

Rounding out the top five were the University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin, Madison; University of California, San Francisco, and University of California, Los Angeles.

Scientists at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, based in Laurel, MD, want to get into the minds of amputees who use prosthetic limbs. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded researchers a $34.5 million contract to begin testing a new prosthetic limb system controlled by the amputees' thoughts.

Here's an excerpt:

"APL scientists and engineers developed the underlying technology under DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 program, an ambitious four-year effort to create a prosthetic arm that would by far eclipse the World War II era hook-and-cable device used by most amputees. The program has already produced two complex prototypes, each advancing the art of upper-arm prosthetics.

The final design -- the MPL -- offers 22 degrees of motion, including independent movement of each finger, in a package that weighs about nine pounds (the weight of a natural limb). Providing nearly as much dexterity as a natural limb, the MPL is capable of unprecedented mechanical agility and is designed to respond to a user's thoughts."

If you can't beat them, join them. That seems to be the philosophy behind a Johns Hopkins study seeking to find a solution to Baltimore's "food deserts." Many Baltimore neighborhoods do not have a local grocery store or supermarket that offer healthy eating alternatives to combat the glut of fast food that is available.

Hee-Jung Song, Ph.D., a researcher in the School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, is studying whether Baltimore's ubiquitous corner stores, might just be the solution.

Here's an excerpt:

"In Baltimore, corner storeowners increased their stocking, promotion and sales of healthier foods and customers showed a tendency to buy and prepare more fruits and vegetables through one such program.

"Inner-city Baltimore is a 'food desert" with many fast food restaurants and corner stores, but few supermarkets," said lead author Hee-Jung Song, Ph.D., a researcher in the School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. "These food environments result in less availability of and accessibility to healthy food and impact on the kinds of food consumed by low-income residents."

The study appears online in the journal Health Promotion Practice.

The Baltimore Healthy Store program provided monetary incentives or free food to store owners, coordinated education about nutrition and developed guidelines for the owners to follow to help overcome language and cultural barriers. This is important, since most corner storeowners in Baltimore are Korean-American, while the customers largely are African-American."

The Swedes have been at it again, handing out prizes to American researchers. It ain't a Noble Prize, but the work of Rita Colwell, a professor at the University of Maryland and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Heath has won the Stockholm Water Prize for her research that has helped solve many water-related public health problems including cholera.

Here's an excerpt

"Colwell, 76, received the award for her "numerous seminal contributions towards solving the world's water and water-related public health problems," the jury of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) said.

Her work, especially on preventing the spread of cholera, "has established the basis for environmental and infectious disease risk assessment used around the world" and "is of the utmost global importance," it added in a statement.

The 76-year-old professor at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health was also honoured for being one of the first to study "the impact of climate change on the spread of disease," SIWI scientific director Per-Arne Malmqvist told a gathering in Stockholm where the prize was announced."

Part of the Physically Challenged Sports Program at Kennedy Krieger, I-Skate offers children with physical disabilities the unique opportunity to learn how to ice skate—not only improving their health and independence, but providing important social interaction with their peers.

Launched in November 2009, the I-Skate program is open to children ages 5 to 18 with a wide range of physical disabilities that can include cerebral palsy, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, limb differences and paralysis. Specially designed adaptive ice skates, walkers, ice sleds and helmets make it possible for these children to participate in weekly skating sessions. The program participants range from children who may eventually become independent skaters to those who may always use a walker for support.